Translated Desires: Translation, Ibn Al-Arabi and the Multilingual Islamic Past

The writings of Ibn al-ʿArabi (d. 1240), one of the most influential Sufi Muslim theoreticians of the medieval period, touched all aspects of knowledge in Asia and Africa in the centuries after his death.

This workshop will take as its objective a global history of translation and language in both the dissemination and reception of Ibn al-'Arabi's writings through discourse, music, and art.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20

OPENING RECEPTION 3:30 - 5:30PM

RARE BOOK & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY

Featuring Exhibit "Light and Beauty" by New York Islamic Arts

QAWWALI CONCERT 6:00 - 8:00PM

SAINT PAUL'S CHAPEL

Farid Ayaz & Abu Muhammad Qawwal Group

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21

(JEROME GREENE HALL 106)

WELCOME, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, AND OPENING REMARKS: 9AM

Ali Karjoo-Ravary (Columbia University)

SOURCES: 9:30-11 AM

• Kazuyo Murata (King's College London)
  Ibn al-ʿArabi on Boredom

• Maria Dakake (George Mason University)
  Ta'wīl and Ishara: The Meaning of these Terms in Ibn al-ʿArabi’s Approach to the Qur’an

• Mohammed Rustom (Carleton University)
  Ibn al-ʿArabi on Translation

LEGACIES: 11:15 AM - 12:45 PM

• Rosabel Ansari (SUNY Stony Brook)
  Ibn al-ʿArabi in Peripatetic guise? From ‘iyan to burhan and the epistemological problematic

• Marlene Dubois (Suffolk Community College)
  The Covenant of Alast: When Love Shared its Promise

• Amer Latif (Emerson College)
  The Sufi Path of Extraordinary Ordinariness in the Ottoman Novel
  The Depths of Imagination

• Atif Khalil (University of Lethbridge)
  Ibn al-ʿArabi in Japan: The Life and Legacy of Toshihiko Izutsu (1914-1993)

LUNCH BREAK: 1-2 PM

TRANSLATIONS: 2:45-4:15 PM

• Oludamini Ogunnaike (University of Virginia)
  Philosophical Sufism in the Sokoto Caliphate: Two Poems of Shaykh Dan Tafa

• Shankar Nair (University of Virginia)
  The Heart as Cosmic Creator: Hindu Scriptures Translated through the Lens of Ibn al-ʿArabi

• Sachiko Murata (SUNY Stony Brook)
  Wujudi Metaphysics in Chinese

KEYNOTE: 5-6:30 PM

• William C. Chittick (SUNY Stony Brook)
  Farghani on Wahdat al-Wujud in the Four Journeys